Catalog

Guideline Catalog

Browse visualization guideline records with sections, labels, and references.

781 records

Page 21 of 33

  1. Set the default view to the primary interpretation

    For interactive narrative visualization with multiple views, use interaction access on default states and menu order to improve insight and mitigate unguided first impressions for readers entering a focused story.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • quality:insight:use
    • lever:interaction-access
    • structure:multi-view
    • +1

  2. Set the y-axis range by standard deviation when showing standardized effect size

    For effect-size comparison, use a standard-deviation-based y-axis range on quantitative charts of standardized outcomes to improve fidelity and mitigate overstatement from minimal axes and understatement from full-range axes for readers with novice chart literacy.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • data:quantitative
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • +3

  3. Shift palette colors toward a shared hue to unify them

    For revising an existing categorical palette, use a shared hue shift on palette colors to improve aesthetics and mitigate colors that feel unrelated in one chart.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • data:categorical
    • quality:aesthetics
    • lever:encoding
    • +3

  4. Show both affected and unaffected counts when accuracy is the goal

    For part-whole risk communication in quantitative displays, use both numerator and denominator on the same graphic to improve fidelity and mitigate inflated risk impressions for readers making accuracy-focused judgments.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • quality:fidelity
    • lever:layout-structure
    • operator:part-whole
    • +1

  5. Show category colors inside tooltips

    For interactive visualizations with tooltips, use category-colored tooltip content on hovered marks to improve readability and mitigate category confusion when the legend is unseen or covered for readers seeking exact values.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • quality:readability:use
    • lever:interaction-access
    • component:tooltip:use
    • +2

  6. Show each object with its label

    For ordered-time explanatory visuals, use paired object-and-label presentation on labeled displays to improve fidelity and mitigate misidentification for viewers following unfamiliar content.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • time:ordered-time
    • temporal-pattern:dynamic
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • +2

  7. Show item details on demand for dense treemap regions

    For lookup in dense treemaps, use on-demand detail readouts on selected treemap regions to improve readability and address the lack of space for persistent item labels for users inspecting item metadata.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • chart:treemap
    • quality:readability
    • lever:interaction-access
    • +3

  8. Show multiple pollsters in the same poll graphic

    For cross-source comparison at a timepoint, use a multi-source layout on poll graphics to improve trust and mitigate overreliance on one potentially biased or mistaken estimate for readers judging current support.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:compare
    • scope:record-list
    • time:timepoint
    • +3

  9. Show prediction intervals instead of confidence intervals for treatment-effect judgments

    For individual-level treatment-effect judgments in experimental results, prefer outcome-uncertainty interval encoding on mean-with-interval charts to improve fidelity and mitigate overestimation of treatment effectiveness for lay readers.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • lever:encoding
    • +2

  10. Show prior expectations separately from outcomes

    For retrospective evaluation over ordered time, use explicit ex ante expectation annotation on temporal charts to improve fidelity and mitigate hindsight for reviewers.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • time:ordered-time
    • data:temporal
    • quality:fidelity
    • +3

  11. Show risk as a part-to-whole mark when accurate judgment is the goal

    For risk judgment tasks, use part-whole encoding on bar-style risk charts to improve judgment fidelity and mitigate numerator-only overemphasis for patient audiences.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • chart:bar
    • quality:fidelity
    • +3

  12. Show the distribution when readers must judge values around a mean

    For judging likely values around a summarized quantitative result, prefer distribution depictions on charts that would otherwise show only a mean bar to improve fidelity and mitigate false within-the-bar inferences for readers making decisions from the display.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:distribute
    • chart:bar:avoid
    • data:quantitative
    • +3

  13. Show the mean explicitly when readers must judge the mean

    For compare tasks on grouped value displays, use explicit mean encoding on the chart to improve fidelity and mitigate proxy judgments from raw marks for readers interpreting group averages.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • scope:grouped-result
    • quality:fidelity
    • +2

  14. Show the second-place margin in tooltips on winner maps

    For interactive inspection of winner-take-all district maps, use tooltip text on choropleth maps to improve insight and address winner-only summaries for readers checking how close the top two candidates were.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • chart:choropleth
    • data:geospatial
    • component:tooltip:use
    • +3

  15. Simplify the temporal layout into a clear sequence

    For tracing ordered-time patterns, prefer a simple temporal layout on time-related charts to improve readability and mitigate interpretation problems from cluttered or mixed-timescale displays for viewers following sequences over time.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:rhetorical
    • task:trend
    • time:ordered-time
    • data:temporal
    • +3

  16. Snap semantic colors to a predefined palette when distinctness matters

    For categorical comparison in palette-constrained workflows, use nearest-palette assignment on semantically chosen colors to improve readability and address overly similar or poorly tuned semantic shades for viewers comparing many categories.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • data:categorical
    • quality:readability
    • +4

  17. Soften a symbolic stoplight palette when other cues identify categories

    For category-identification tasks in a labeled table of status shares, prefer lower-saturation color encoding on semantically familiar categories to improve aesthetics and mitigate overly forceful color for readers who can also rely on noncolor cues.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • chart:table
    • quality:aesthetics
    • lever:encoding
    • +3

  18. Sort comparable categories by rank when the task is to find top contributors

    For comparison and lookup tasks on grouped quantitative categories, use descending rank order to improve readability and mitigate slow scanning for analysts identifying top contributors.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • operator:rank
    • reading-mode:lookup
    • +3

  19. Sort line-chart x order when the goal is correlation judgment

    For relate tasks, use value-based x ordering on line charts to improve fidelity and mitigate imprecise positive-correlation judgments for readers distinguishing nearby association strengths.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:relate
    • chart:line
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • +2

  20. Sort rows by the most important value, not by habit

    For long storytelling tables, use task-driven row order on tables to improve insight and mitigate burying important rows below the first screen or page for readers who see the top of the list first.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • chart:table
    • quality:insight
    • lever:scale-order
    • +2

  21. Sort small-multiple panels by a meaningful metric

    For navigation and ranking in small-multiple line charts, use meaningful panel order on the panel grid to improve insight and address arbitrary reading order for readers scanning many panels.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • structure:small-multiples
    • quality:insight
    • lever:scale-order
    • +2

  22. Split an overcrowded chart into small multiples

    For pattern reading in dense displays, prefer a small-multiples layout on charts where too many elements compete for the same space to improve accessibility and mitigate overcrowded single-view displays for people with cognitive needs.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:accessibility
    • structure:small-multiples:use
    • structure:single-view:avoid
    • quality:accessibility:use
    • +3

  23. Split broad model comparisons into separate condition panels

    For grouped-result method comparisons spanning several datasets or evaluation scores, prefer a multi-view structure over a single aggregate ranking to improve insight and mitigate hidden rank reversals for analysts.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • scope:grouped-result
    • structure:multi-view:use
    • +3

  24. Split charts with multiple X or Y axes into separate charts

    For multi-measure reading and comparison, prefer separate-chart layout structure on views that would otherwise use more than one X or Y axis to prevent cognitive overload and mitigate ambiguous axis interpretation for broad audiences.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:accessibility
    • structure:multi-view:use
    • structure:single-view:avoid
    • measure:multi
    • +3